Japanese name

Names

Native name

Names in the series

General Information

Country of origin

Thailand

Focus

Striking

Parenthood

Muay Boran, Krabi Krabong

Muay Thai is a form of hard martial art from Thailand. Descended from muay boran, Muay Thai is Thailand's national sport. Muay Thai is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs", or the "Science Of Eight Limbs", because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight "points of contact", as opposed to "two points" (fists) in Western boxing and "four points" (hands and feet) used in sport-oriented martial arts. A practitioner of Muay Thai is known as a "nak muay". Western practitioners are sometimes called "nak muay farang", meaning "foreign boxer".

Formal Muay Thai techniques are divided into two groups: Mae Mai (major techniques), and Luk Mai (minor techniques). Muay Thai is often a fighting art of attrition, where opponents exchange blows with one another. This is certainly the case with traditional stylists in Thailand, but is a less popular form of fighting in the contemporary world fighting circuit where the Thai style of exchanging blow for blow is no longer favorable. Almost all techniques in Muay Thai use the entire body movement, rotating the hip with each kick, punch, elbow, and block.